Rolandia coralloides Lacaze-Duthiers, 1900

Ocaña, Oscar & Çinar, Melih Ertan, 2018, Descriptions of two new genera, six new species and three new records of Anthozoa (Cnidaria) from the Sea of Marmara, Journal of Natural History 52 (35 - 36), pp. 2243-2282 : 2273-2275

Rolandia coralloides Lacaze-Duthiers, 1900

( Figure 19 )

To check an extensive synonymous list, see Ocaña et al. 2000.

Material examined

ESFM-CNI/2012-04 ; 2 October 2012, Sea of Marmara , K18, 40°50 ʹ 26 ʺ N, 29°07 ʹ 33 ʺ E, 25 m, growing on rocky substrate, portion of a colony .

Remarks

Sclerites of the specimens include crosses, fused quadruplets, shuttles and six radiates. The colony portion shows a ribbon-like stolon morphology ( Figure 19 (a), 19(b)) (see Ocaña et al. 2000). Misinterpretations about the taxonomy of Evagora rosea Philippi 1842 , Sarcodictyon catenatum Forbes 1847 and Rolandia coralloides de Lacaze Duthiers 1900 have been repeated until recent times, as Weinberg (1978) and Manuel (1981) considered E. rosea and R. coralloides as synonymous species. They also synonymized S. catenatum and R. rosea with Sarcodictyon roseum . Çinar et al. (2014) also included S. roseum into the checklist of Cnidaria and Ctenophora from Turkey based on the report by Ostroumoff (1894). Evagora rosea was originally described from the Mediterranean and possibly belongs to Sarcodictyon or Rolandia , but this remains uncertain due to the inaccurate description by Philippi (1842); it is even possible that it belongs to Scleranthelia Studer, 1878 . In fact, after Philippi, species with some resemblance to E. rosea were generally referred to this species. The paper by Ocaña et al. (2000) proved that R. coralloides and S. catenatum are distinct species, while the validity of E. rosea and S. roseum has not been solved yet.

Habitat

This species was found on a stone in 25 m depth.

Figures

Figure 19. Rolandia coralloides. (a) Live colony; (b) a small colony with expanded tentacles. Scale bar: a = 3 mm, b = 1 mm.